Credit and debit cards as well as systems for using credit and debit eCards are well known to those skilled in the art and are described, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,327,575 and 6,128,599 and Patent Application 20020042774, published Apr. 11, 2002, and in the references cited therein. By eCard is meant the well known credit or debit card made of plastic or other suitable material containing information about the eCard holder-consumer in a magnetic strip or in an embedded memory chip and authorized by the eCard credit card company such a sponsoring bank, VISA, Master Card or American Express, to transact a sale with a cooperating merchant and have the merchant credited with the sale amount with respect to the customer, like a cash transaction, while the customer has the benefit of a cash less debit or credit transaction.
Among the well known uses of debit and credit eCards are sponsored eCards where a third party sponsors or promotes the eCard to the eCard holder, and the eCard or credit card company issuing the card, such as VISA or Master Card, offers the eCard to the sponsors' members or affiliates, or clients or customers or affiliates of any kind, who represent an exclusive group delivered to the eCard company as eCard users and to the participating merchants as customers. The offer is typically enhanced with a reward such as frequent flyer points or bonus points or rebates directly in money or other credits for use in transactions made later in time with the sponsor's card. In this way, the consumer can build credits with each purchase for later use but receives no immediate discount benefit.
While the systems and methods shown in the above stated references have achieved success for eCard credit or debit card companies, directly as credit cards or debit cards, or as credit or debit cards with enhanced services, a disadvantage is suffered because these aforementioned method and systems are not shown as disclosing a straight debit card which provides a direct and immediate discount to the eCard using consumer, while strengthening the bond between the sponsor and the consumer by connecting the consumer to merchants offering direct discounts to the consumer through, and because of the sponsor. and do not permit a full direct discounted payment to the merchant.
Other disadvantages of prior systems was inefficiency or lack or a system and method of identifying a customer's preference when receiving a discount, and by first requiring the customer first accumulate some type of cash value, rebates, points, prizes, gift certificates or similar reward.
The prior systems requiring the recording of accumulated credits throughout the customer's transaction history had the additional software or hardware computer and data transmission equipment costs to maintain the vital customer records and the capability of authenticating those records. The prior systems lacked an efficient system and method for electronically adding a merchant as a member merchant in the sponsored discount system and immediately upon adding the merchant, enabling the merchant to enter into discount transactions with a customer presenting an authentic sponsor debit card.
The prior systems and methods lacked the capability of operating over an open network, for example the Internet, to prepare and send a data to the merchant from a central location to enroll the merchant in the sponsors discount debit plan, or to use an eCard meaning a card with data in electronic form to enroll the merchant by processing the card as a debit or credit transaction at the merchant's point of sale terminal, whereby the merchant's account may be debited directly for the merchant's discount, the customer's account may be debited directly, the eCard sponsor's credit may be distributed.